Monthly Archives: September 2006

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It’s not a matter of when St. Bonnie will stop Oaks … but IF. Seven plays, 68 yards, 40-yard TD pass Christopher Owusu. 21-zip, and as my esteemed collegue Ramona Shelburne has pointed out, it’s only the first quarter …

This time Oaks drives 91 yards in 96 seconds, culminating with a 13-yard TD run by Tyler, who also had a 25-yard run during the drive. Two point conversion good, 14-0 Oaks, and this thing is getting out of hand …

Nervous little opponent? Not so far. After holding St. Bonnie to three-and-out, Oaks uses a 24-yard punt return by Chris Potter, followed by a five-play, 41-touchdown drive. Clausen passed 15 yards to Sean Wiser for the TD, and that was that … PAT failed, muffed play.

Former NFL great Wendell Tyler, father of Oaks’ star RB Marc Tyler, works as an Oaks assistant, and among his duties is to deliver a pregame speech.

The elder Tyler pulled out all the stops tonight.

“I just told them the truth: Great teams win big games. Great teams play with confidence. Great teams don’t make mistakes under pressure,” Tyler said. “Then I told them: ‘The question is, are you a great team?'”

At that moment, Tyler peeled off his shirt to reveal a St. Bonaventure t-shirt underneath, and the Oaks players ripped it off his body and head out the locker-room door.

Potter, whose son, Chris, is an Oaks startring receiver, admitted feeling a bit of deja vu as the teams warmed up. Thirty-six years ago, as quarterback for Granada Hills High, he was the focal point of the San fernando Valley’s biggest ever game (still to this date) in the 1970 City Championship against rival San Fernando before a crowd of 18,000 at Birmingham High.

“I told Christopher that tonight he can start a new legacy,” Potter said.

BTW, the younger Potter, a junior who was a star QB in Pop Warner but happens to play for the same team as Jimmy Clausen, has been offered a scholarship — as a receiver — by Oregon State and Troy State. So I guess it’s not nine DI-bound players at Oaks, it’s TEN.

There are a lot of reasons so many folks are interested in tonight’s showdown. For me, what makes things especially intriguing is “the great unknown.” I don’t care how many DI-bound superstars play for Oaks Christian, the cold, hard fact is they’ve never beaten a truly great team — never scheduled one, it should be pointed out — so tonight is the measuring stick, the Litmus test, the tell-all.

Everyone says St. Bonnie has everything to lose, and Oaks has nothing to lose. No way. Oaks has everything to lose, specifically credibility, if the boys don’t win, or at the minimum put up a good fight. St. Bonnie has more than proven itself. If they lose, oh well, a bad game. Get ’em next week. For Oaks, which returns to a small-school schedule, there IS no tommorow — not even another section title will quiet the skeptics if Clausen and Co. don’t measure up tonight.

How weird, really. Oaks, ranked higher than St. Bonnie in most polls, is the underdog and the favorite all at the same time.

Plus, all the pregame hype — or most of it, anyway — proclaims the key for St. Bonnie is put pressure on Oaks’ QB Jimmy Clausen, a great talent who hasn’t beaten anyone … yet. We’ll see if this Lion has the heart of one or not tonight. If he comes through dramatically, he’s a hero. If he doesn’t, he’ll take the blame … and rightfully so. That’s the way it is when you’re a star quarterback. Deal.

Well, this game is officially ON, no worry about ambient smoke, ashes, etc. It’s 90 minutes before kickoff, and the place is PACKED … not a seat in this house.

“It’s an amazing crowd. I’ve never seen a JV crowd this big,” said Thom Simmons, a Southern Section media rep who helped to organize media credentials. “We have 112 media requests, and there were only 78 for the De La Salle-Long Beach Poly game a few years back. For a CIF standpoint, it’s always gratifying to have this kind of attention for any event, and football is the biggest thing on the block. It’s a real treat for these kids because they’re getting first-class treatment. What a great event.”

There are a lot of reasons so many folks are interested in tonight’s showdown. For me, what makes things especially intriguing is “the great unknown.” I don’t care how many DI-bound superstars play for Oaks Christian, the cold, hard fact is they’ve never beaten a truly great team — never scheduled one, it should be pointed out — so tonight is the measuring stick, the Litmus test, the tell-all.

Everyone says St. Bonnie has everything to lose, and Oaks has nothing to lose. No way. Oaks has everything to lose, specifically credibility, if the boys don’t win, or at the minimum put up a good fight. St. Bonnie has more than proven itself. If they lose, oh well, a bad game. Get ’em next week. For Oaks, which returns to a small-school schedule, there IS no tommorow — not even another section title will quiet the skeptics if Clausen and Co. don’t measure up tonight.

How weird, really. Oaks, ranked higher than St. Bonnie in most polls, is the underdog and the favorite all at the same time.

Plus, all the pregame hype — or most of it, anyway — proclaims the key for St. Bonnie is put pressure on Oaks’ QB Jimmy Clausen, a great talent who hasn’t beaten anyone … yet. We’ll see if this Lion has the heart of one or not tonight. If he comes through dramatically, he’s a hero. If he doesn’t, he’ll take the blame … and rightfully so. That’s the way it is when you’re a star quarterback. Deal.

Well, this game is officially ON, no worry about ambient smoke, ashes, etc. It’s 90 minutes before kickoff, and the place is PACKED … not a seat in this house.

“It’s an amazing crowd. I’ve never seen a JV crowd this big,” said Thom Simmons, a Southern Section media rep who helped to organize media credentials. “We have 112 media requests, and there were only 78 for the De La Salle-Long Beach Poly game a few years back. For a CIF standpoint, it’s always gratifying to have this kind of attention for any event, and football is the biggest thing on the block. It’s a real treat for these kids because they’re getting first-class treatment. What a great event.”

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